Lab42's Relationship Status Update

How do people treat relationships nowadays?

That's the question the team at Lab42 asked before embarking upon a survey of 500 social network users over the age of 18. Relationships are more public than ever. With the rise of social media, friends, family, and ex's can find out far more about your love life than you would ever knowingly tell them. So how does all that transparency affect our dating habits?

Lab42 asked a range of personal questions and created an infographic (see it here) called "The Relationship Status Update" to display the participants' answers. Here are some of the survey's most interesting findings:

When asked to share the most important trait a significant other should possess, physical attractiveness ranked last, with 11% of the vote. Emotionally attentive (12%) and similar humor (13%) came next, followed by strong family values (20%) and same personality (21%). The majority of respondents (23%) chose something other than the proscribed answers, like political views, religion, taste in music, and financial stability.

Cheaters - at least those willing to fess up to it - are still the minority of the dating population. 68% of men and 77% of women said that they have never cheated, meaning that 32% of men and 23% of women have stepped out on their partners. The numbers don't quite add up, however, when the participants were asked if they had ever been cheated on:

• "Yes:" 48% of men, 53% of women

• "No:" 37% of men, 35% of women

• "Unsure:" 15% of men, 12% of women

Then came the moment if truth. "If there was no chance of getting caught," Lab 42 asked, "would you cheat?" 76% of women answered with a resounding "No," along with 58% of men. But 24% of women said they would cheat if their actions didn't have consequences, as did 42% of men. There's no need to lose faith in love and romance, however. When asked if they believe that there is one true soulmate for every person, a clear majority of survey respondents (75%) said "Yes."

With the basics out of the way, the Lab42 team moved on to the main event: social media and other technology. How should delicate subjects like the Facebook relationship status be handled by modern daters? What is contemporary breakup etiquette? How do couples prefer to communicate? And how popular is Facebook stalking anyway? We'll answer those questions, and more, in Part II.